Tra storia e leggenda. Indagini sul network artistico tra Sofonisba Anguissola, Giulio Clovio e Levina Teerlinc

Abstract

The article explores the relation between two miniature painters: the Croatian Giulio Clovio and the Fleming Levina Teerlinc. The starting point of this research is a letter written in the 1540s, which is written by Annibal Caro in name of Giulio Clovio. The letter is addressed to a young nameless female miniature painter. This female miniature painter can be identified as Levina Teerlinc because of a corresponding characteristics and profile. The focal point of this letter is an exchange of self-portraits between Clovio and the female painter. Proof that it is Levina Teerlinc who sends Clovio her self-portrait is to be found in the testament of the Croatian artist, that reminds «il ritratto di Livinia meniatrice» or «the portrait of Livinia miniature painter».
Historiography connected the event to the portrait of Giulio Clovio, painted by the hand of Sofonisba Anguissola. In this portrait the Croatian is depicted with a portrait miniature in his hand. Federico Zeri, owner of the portrait until 1998, believed that the miniature portrayed Levina Teerlinc. This present article argues that the miniature is a self-portrait of Sofonisba Anguissola. Evidence for this can be found in another portrait of this painter of Cremona. In the portrait of her master Bernardino Campi, Anguissola depicts Campi in the action of painting her portrait, which essentially is a self-portrait. In both paintings, the master paints a portrait of his pupil Sofonsiba: Bernardino Campi is her master for painting, while Giulio Clovio is her master for miniature painting. Clovio, just like Campi, is depicted in the act of painting, with the brush in his hand and his eye focussed on the viewer.
Further, the article describes exhaustively the provenance of the portrait of Clovio. It particularly emphasises the typology of headgear the miniature painter wears and compares it with a similar sample worn by a contemporary Englishman.
Finally, this study proposes to give some answers to unresolved questions about the relationship between Clovio and Levina. The article individuates Francisco de Holanda as an intermediary between the two. Further, it rectifies the birth and wedding date of Levina and confirms her absence in Flanders even before her English period. This means that it cannot be excluded that Levina Teerlinc spent a period in Italy around the 1540s and that she might have been a student of Giulio Clovio.